Royal snapshots: Bride Vroom and withdrawn invitation

(Reuters Life!) - Following is a selection of stories related to the April 29 royal wedding of Britain's Prince William and Kate Middleton that have appeared in newspapers and on websites in the last week.

(Reuters does not vouch for the accuracy of reports from other publications.)

-- Britain's Prince William showed no signs of pre-wedding jitters as he got stuck into a soccer kickabout in a London park. Wills, wearing a pair of England shorts, laughed and joked with his friends during a rough-and-tumble game of five-a-side. The heir hurled himself into the tackles - clearly unbothered about the risk of straining something important so close to his and Kate's big day. At about 11 p.m. the prince set off home on his powerful Ducati motorbike - still wearing the trainers he played in. His famous features were hidden behind a helmet with tinted visor.

(April 28, source: The Sun)

-- For every Briton who will tune in to watch Friday's royal wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton, one definitely will not.

That was the finding of a recent Ipsos MORI poll for Reuters which underlines how, for all the international media hoopla surrounding the big occasion, the appeal of a rare show of royal pomp and pageantry is far from universal.

"I want to get as far away as possible from the wedding because it really doesn't mean anything to me, so my wife and I are going for a long weekend to Italy," said Londoner Alex Joseph, voicing a common view that has tended to be drowned out by the rising din of royal fervor.

"I don't think we will escape it fully as everyone will be talking about it, but at least we won't have to face the madness in London."